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Why Small Businesses Need Email Lists & How to Start One

Mike Valentine — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:45:19 +0000

One of the most common phrases you’ll hear from web marketers is “the money’s in the list.” When they say this, they’re talking about an email list – regardless of whether it’s a subscription-based email newsletter that you send weekly/monthly or a list of contacts that you only email when you need some extra cash in the bank. But surprisingly, the email list is one of the most frequently forgotten aspects of small business marketing. Most people think back to how they handle spam email (straight to the trash bin), and they think that everyone else probably acts the same way.

But there really is money in an email list, providing that it is collected properly and kept warm with periodic emails (preferably resulting in tried and true conversion rates). An email list gives you that instant cash injection your business needs during tough sales months, or before a cost intensive marketing campaign or product launch. In the days of social media dominance, your small business simply can’t afford to go on without having an email list.

How to Use an Email List as a Small Business

Not every email list needs to be purposed for heavy conversions. Instead, small businesses can use their email lists in a variety of different ways.

Tip Fence-Post Customers: Some customers aren’t convinced enough to buy your products/services when they visit your site, but they can possibly be converted with further contact. One great way to use your email list as a small business is to ask customers to enter their email information for your newsletter. Some web developers will ask visitors to enter their email address as a way to qualify for special discounts on future orders, or in exchange for free things like instructional videos or an eBook. People like coupons and free things, so this can be a powerful persuasive technique.

Upsell Your Products: You can also ask customers to enter their email address after making a purchase on your site (offer further product updates, patch notes, or coupons as part of the email program). This is probably one of the most common ways that eCommerce developers gather email addresses for their list. With these emails, you can offer customers complimentary products to the ones they’ve purchased. For example, the company Halloween Express presents an email signup page after every purchase, usually offering additional products. If a person notes that they are purchasing their costume for an upcoming party during their initial checkout, that person is sent an email with a link to group themed costumes – as a possible way to convert the customer on group themed costumes for their party. In general, the more customization you can do with upsell emails based on the customer’s activity, the better your conversion rate will be with this type of list.

Provide a Friendly Reminder: You don’t have to make any offers whatsoever in your emails to take advantage of an effective email list. In fact, this is one of the foundations of effective advertising. For example, a company like Coca-Cola (which spends $2.5 billion a year on advertising) has few new products to advertise. Instead, their advertisements serve as more of a reminder that they still exist, and keeps customers thinking about their products. With an email list, you can accomplish the same thing with your customers – hopefully inspiring the “Oh! I was just thinking about what I wanted to drink with my lunch” kinds of emotions.

Emailing is More Effective than Social Media: It’s true – people tend to read emails much more carefully than they browse social media status updates. While you still have some competition in their inbox, you face nowhere near as many people calling for your customers’ attention when you email them.

How to Start an Email List Using AWeber

First of all, never buy your email list from a third party provider. These lists are fake at worst and outdated at best. Take the time to build your email list naturally, whether you use your existing customers’ information or a separate sign up form on your website (preferably both). One of the most popular (and easiest to use) email list building programs is AWeber, which allows you to:

Create an opt-in page for your website
Write welcome emails, follow-ups, and auto responders
Manage and organize your email lists
Automate email delivery

When you first create your account at AWeber, you’ll be greeted with a dashboard and a Setup Wizard at the bottom of the screen.

Email List Setup

Going through the Setup Wizard can be the only thing you ever do with the program (besides updating your email contacts and importing new emails), and it will still give you everything you need to launch an effective email campaign. Clicking “Do This Step” starts the wizard.

Give your new list a name, to help differentiate it from other lists you might have or plan to start in the future.
Add a description of the list (perhaps a few words about your email campaign) and the address you would like displayed as the “from address.” Remember that both of these items will be seen by your subscribers, so the description should accurately describe the purpose of the list (e.g. “The Pasta of the Month Email Club.”)
Finish up the “unsubscribe” settings by adding more information about the list and clicking “Finish This Step.” This will update the Setup Wizard on the next page.
Follow the next step to set up your confirmation email, or the email that participants will receive when they first sign up for your list. This acts as a double-opt in email, which asks users to confirm their subscription (and helps to keep your emails out of their spam folder). Both the unsubscribe and confirmation email links can be added to your website directly from AWeber.
Follow the Setup Wizard to the next step, which is creating a welcome email. This email will be sent to people that complete the confirmation email, and should be the first email they receive. Most list builders use this email to welcome new members and let them know what to expect from future emails.
Perform the next step of filling out the web form information, which will allow you to automatically imbed the email list web form on your site. You can choose from a variety of templates, and choose to have the template situated in your sidebar, or as a type of pop-up that is triggered when a visitor navigates to a certain page of your site. You can fully customize the form to fit your site.
Paste the HTML for the web form anywhere you want it to appear on your site. Remember, you can create multiple boxes and any number of different emails to best fit the web form’s position on your site.

Once the web form is live on your site, you should begin to get sign-ups from your visitors (depending on how much traffic your website currently receives). If you aren’t getting the volume you’d like to see in your list, it might take some time. You can also promote the signup page through your social media profiles, or by including a link to the page when you write guest posts on other blogs.

History Of Email 40 Years 1971 – 2011 Infographic

Mike Valentine — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:52:14 +0000

History of Email Infographic

1971: Computer engineer Ray Tomlinson sends the ???rst electronic mall message. Tomlinson has since forgotten what the message said.
1976: Queen Elizabeth II becomes first head of state to send an electronic mail message.
1978: The ???rst electronically- sent advertisement goes out, over a network of government and university computers.
1982: The word ???email??? is ???rst used. The first ever smiley emoticon is invented by Scott Fahlman.
1989: Radio man Elwood Edwards records AOL’s iconic ???Welcome,??? ???File is done,??? ???Goodbye,??? & ???You???ve got mail???
1997: Microsoft buys Hotmail for about $400 Million & Microsoft Outlook is released.
1998: The word ???spam??? is added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Warner Brothers releases “You’ve Got Mail” which tops $250 Million at the box office.
1999: A fraudulent emall claiming that Bill Gates plans to share his wealth with Internet users begins to circulate. It is forwarded by millions.
2003:
- 0n an episode of “The Simpsons,??? Homer reveals hls emall address, chunkylover53@AOL.com.
- George W. Bush signs into law the CAN-SPAM Act, the US’ first national standard for sending commercial email.
2004:
- FTC Codifies email spam laws.
- LOL and other internet acronyms are officially recognized in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- Multimedia emails are introduced after the MMS World Congress in Vienna.
2005: SPF, the ???rst technology that verifies email senders??? identities, is established.
2007:
- Google makes Gmall available to the public worldwide.
- Anti-phishing security protocol DKIM is adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
2008: Presidential candidate Barack Obama compiles a database of over 13 million email
addresses.
2011: The Associated Press Stylebook changes ???e-mail??? to ???email.???

Brand Management – 5 Opt-in Methods

Mike Valentine — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:01:47 +0000

A big aid to the success of any online business is those customers paying attention to the site and its messages, including e-mail and newsletters. People who are following your progress on a regular basis are receiving more exposure to your product, and are more likely in the end to purchase the services or item you’re selling than someone who just chances across your site. Thus, one of the many metrics set by businesses is a high number of followers they can reach via such contact methods.

As is often the case however, the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. Simply buying a list of e-mail contacts and sending them a message every three days does not count as having a large audience. That’s just spam, and the opinion of spam on the web is rather well known.

Thus there is an increasing focus on the opt-in method of list building. By means of enticements, the distributor gets interested parties to voluntarily sign up for the service. Once this has been accomplished, it can be reasonably assumed that the party is interested in continuing the service over the long term. This means the message is more likely to be put in front of people that want to see it and are most likely to respond to it.

Of course, different strategies produce different results, and not everyone responds to the same methods. Here is a handful of opt-in methods that can be employed to begin building that list.

Method #1 – The Pop Up

This is one of the more controversial options, because it’s one of the catch phrases of the anti-advertising mentality that grows on the web. People hate pop ups, the perception says. However, research suggests that pop ups still are some of the most profitable ways to generate clicks on sites.

There are several ways to approach the pop up option that will minimize the intrusion. Some mimic a toolbar that slides in from one side of the page, for example. Others will appear for a brief period, then recede if not used. The trick is to make it interesting enough to catch the eye, but not so obtrusive as to appear irritating or forced. Do avoid bright, flashing primary colors and strings of exclamation points.

Method #2 – User-activated Pop Up

This is a different take on the pop up methodology. The idea behind a pop up is that when it appears, it catches the eye and is hard to ignore. On the other hand, they’re irritating when they interrupt something a user is reading or watching. However, if a video or article has an embedded link that asks if the visitor would like to know more, that link can be tied to a pop up. This script can then show up and since it’s tied to one of their actions, it’s less likely to get an irritated or rejecting response.

Method #3 – The Free Gift

People feel better about giving out their information for a mailing list if they feel they’ve been rewarded for it. Therefore, entice them into opting in by offering them a gift related to your service. If, for example, your brand is a publisher of ebooks, offer them one of your older titles as an incentive. If your brand specializes in small, casual web games, consider offering one such game for free, or at least a free trial. The visitor perceives an immediate benefit, and is likely to sign up as a result.

As a side note, some free gifts can take the form of contests for prizes. If you are going to go this route, make sure that the prize genuinely is winnable, is worth the winning and that you announce the winner, provided, of course, that you have their consent. Contests are increasingly seen as false options by many viewers, and the only way to circumvent this perception is to make it a genuine item that people can win, rather than a crass deception.

Method #4 – The Squeeze Page

This is a page, based on text or video, that stops the process of giving information and lets the visitor know that they should sign up in order to get the full degree of information. This makes the preceding pages they have viewed a sort of ‘teaser’ that gets them interested in the material you have to offer, followed by an invitation to continue reading in exchange for some brief contact information.

Video is an increasingly popular option for squeeze pages, because it’s so easy to engage with. You can create a short video presentation explaining the value of the e-mail list, and it will stick in the mind much more than a highlighted checklist made of text.

Method #5 – The Basic Form

The simplest methods often become classics, and why? Because they work. Many sites still use the old standby of an unobtrusive simple web form at the end of an article, with spaces for a person’s contact info provided. This has the advantage of being very simple to produce, very easy for the user to fill out, and presents a minimum of interruption compared to pop ups or squeeze pages.

— Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at http://www.iBrandCasting.com/

Online Brand Management – Deliver the Best of Your Brand with an Online Newsletter

Mike Valentine — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:51:52 +0000

Many organizations are replacing their hard copy, dead-tree-edition newsletter with an email publication. Emailed newsletters have the benefit of requiring fewer resources, going out faster, reaching a wider audience with less effort and being easier to correct if a mistake slips in. However, many of them end up being ignored just as much as their physical counterpart.

Every interaction designed for a brand, whether print, online or face-to-face, should be something that advances the brand’s purpose. If the audience’s reaction to anything you send out is ‘what was the point of that?’ – or worse, no reaction at all – something has gone wrong. There are, thankfully, several tips available for making sure that even a newsletter can have the desired effect and reach audiences with the message you want them to get.

Tip #1 – Have a Clear Purpose, and Stick to it

Your organization has a purpose, and your brand has a purpose. It therefore follows that whatever you publish under the aegis of either should support that purpose. The most important thing to remember about your audience is that they are people. It is quite likely that they have jobs, interests and activities entirely unrelated to anything you wish to send them. In general, people are quite good at discerning what things are worthwhile and speak to their interests vs. things which are a waste of their time. The quickest way for your newsletter to enter the latter category is for it to be pointless.

When putting together a plan to launch or publish a newsletter, stop and ask yourself what purpose it needs to accomplish. If you can’t answer in less than 10 seconds, it is time to re-evaluate. Make sure that the newsletter provides strong content related to your primary goal as a brand and understand exactly why the newsletter is needed to get this content to the audience.

Tip # 2 – Combine Sign-up With Registration

People are also creatures of habit, and will often keep on features simply because they’re offered. Make sure that the signup form for your organization automatically includes the email newsletter as part of the package, so that registering signs the audience up for the newsletter as a matter of course. If they dislike it, they can choose to opt out later, of course, but having it in front of them from the beginning means it is more likely to get to them, and thus they are more likely to read it at least once.

Tip # 3 – Protect Yourself from the Spam Patrol

Spam protection is a huge deal on the web at the moment. It isn’t just a matter of disliking clutter or being irritated at receiving the same mindless emails again and again, either. Many spam messages contain viruses, malware, adware, spyware (and probably other ‘wares??? that haven’t been named yet, but are sure to be). Spam filters protect against these threats, and are native to most email clients now. Actual security suites like AVG or Norton provide even more aggressive email monitoring, and many newsletters find themselves getting censored out in the mess.

Take some common sense steps to keep your newsletter from this fate. Make sure your title isn’t too generic. Including words like “Free” or “As Seen On” are sure to trigger most filters. Put a dynamic, creative title in the subject line instead. Don’t overuse HTML in the body of the email, as this can also trigger a spam filter. Avoid writing in all caps, and other mistakes. Common spam-triggering mistakes can be easily researched on the web, and a little research can go a long way in getting your email to its destination.

Tip #4 – Brand Yourself

Remember that integration is the key to all branding success. Put your brand or organization name at the beginning of your subject header. Always take the opportunity to cement your content with your brand, so that people associate the two instinctively.

This, of course, ties back strongly to having a clear and valuable purpose for your newsletter. People associate negative impressions even more strongly than they associate positive ones. Put out content you are proud to put your name on??? or don???t bother.

Tip #5 – Be Welcoming and Inviting

When someone signs up for your email newsletter, send them an email congratulating them for this. Let them know about the newsletter’s purpose and schedule of delivery, and thank them for their interest in your product. This reinforces in the customer’s mind that the newsletter is a feature they can look forward to, rather than surprising them with it sometime later, when the act of signing up has gone out of their head.

In the welcome letter, consider inviting them to sign up for a paid product. This could be an expanded service offered by your site, or it could be your signature product. Don’t dominate the letter with it, because a sales pitch isn’t always welcome. Simply make it a matter of mention, to further associate your brand with your product.

A Last Word

Always consider the option of not publishing a newsletter for a particular period. If nothing has happened that would warrant a newsletter, don’t send one because you ‘have to.’ Never send a letter out of habit or out of course, but always for a purpose. Forcing the issue is one of the surest ways to get your newsletter disregarded and trashed.

How Numbers Matter in Marketing

Mike Valentine — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:02:15 +0000

I typically write a lot more about the “human side of marketing,” because I think topics like trust, sincerity, and emotions get overlooked in most marketing advice discussions.

And no matter how clever your copy and fail safe your system, neglect trust building and you will have to work twice as hard at your marketing for half the results.

But that doesn’t mean you can ignore the numbers side of marketing.

In this article I talk about why numbers are important and how to make them work in your marketing.

=== True Story ===

Last year I was promoting a new teleclass that I was very excited about. I had done the class as a live workshop twice and participants got great results.

It seemed to me that live success should easily translate into teleclass success, right?

I followed all the guidelines for successful online promotions, wrote a strong message, etc. And I didn’t get single sign up.

Someone suggested that I offer a couple scholarships so that we at least made or minimum enrollment of 8 participants. So I wrote another offer and posted it in a small business discussion forum in which I was well known and trusted by members.

Three days went by, then a week, and still, no one was signing up even to take the class for free!!!

Boy did that knock me off my center.

Lucky for me, I felt safe enough in this forum to post a second message telling folks that I was baffled and disappointed no one had taken advantage of my free offer.

Even luckier for me, other forum members responded with honesty and empathy. Of the ten people who responded:

2 said they were really excited about the class but they had other commitments on the class dates.

3 said they were focused on other parts of their business and weren’t ready to learn the subject I was teaching but to let them know if I gave it later in the year.

One said they were on vacation when I posted the offer

One said they didn’t feel they needed to take my class because they had already mastered the subject matter but they thought the class sounded great for those new to the topic.

The other three people didn’t mention the class specifically but said they appreciated my willingness to ask for help and encouraged me not to give up.

Here’s what I took away from the experience:

In marketing, especially in online marketing you must put your message in front of a lot of people and repeat your message over and over again over a period of time.

Why online marketing in particular? Because non-verbal communication–your smile, your tone of voice, your hand gestures, your posture–all go a long way to establishing trust.

When you promote online you often have only the written word with which to establish trust. Thus your response rate is a lot lower.

And, the chances of actually getting your message in front of the right people at the right moment is lower as well.

=== Understanding the Odds ===

For your marketing to work (for an audience member to act on your offer’s Call to Action) all of these things need to happen. Your prospect:

actually needs what you’re offering
is aware that they need what you offer
trusts you and believes you’ll deliver what you promise
actually reads or listens to your message when it goes out
has the time and money to take you up on your offer

The odds I use are 1 out of 10 in the case of responses to online marketing.

In other words, for every 100 emails you send to readers who have opted in to your e-mail list:

10 will act on your call to action (click through to your sales page) 1 will actually make a purchase

And 1 in 10 (10%) is actually a spectacular rate of response! It’s not unusual for rates to be more like 5% even 1%.

What’s important is to remember these percents are guidelines. And you can actually improve your odds.

Factors that affect your response rate include:

Familiarity with your offer. The more often someone sees your offer, the more likely they’ll take the next step assuming they want and need what you offer
A marketing message that is personalized to the problem and the way your prospect experiences the problem
How well you define your niche and the likelihood that everyone receiving your message has the problem you’re addressing
Your message avoids words and phrases that trigger spam filters, etc.

=== How These Numbers Apply to Your Marketing ===

If you’re a small business owner and use online marketing, here are the main points to take away:

Take Away Point #1 You Need a Large Email List

When someone tells me they’re disappointed with the low number of response they received from a promotion. The first question I ask them is, “How big is your list?”

How large is “large”? At least 500 subscribers, preferably 1,000.

It’s perfectly ok if you have a smaller list but you will need to supplement your online marketing with activities that are more personal: local networking, free presentations, etc.

Take Away Point #2 Repeated Offers Over Time are a Must

People don’t see every email you send because …

they’re out of the office
they’re reading their email on their phone and only look at the most urgent messages
they accidentally delete your email
etc.

And even if they open your email they may not pay much attention because …

your event is six weeks away and they just can’t think that far into the future
they aren’t ready yet to take a class on the subject matter because other priorities take precedence

Which is why it’s so important to repeat your offers to your prospects over a period of time; such as six to eight weeks.

Because eventually, the people who want to enroll in your class or buy your DVD or hire you as a coach will actually see your offer, read it, and take action.

Take Away Point #3 Relevance is Important

The main resistance to point #2 is “if I send too many emails, everyone will unsubscribe.”

Which is why there’s point #3; they won’t subscribe if the offer is relevant to something they need now or are likely to need soon.

You can email an offer for discounted tire inspections to your heart’s content but there won’t be many takers if most of the people to whom you’re promoting don’t own cars.

Take Away Point #4 Don’t Forget Those Annoying but Important Details

Once I sent out an offer and had no idea why people weren’t registering until someone emailed me saying “hey, I think the link is broken.”

Sure enough, I hadn’t tested the link people were supposed to click to view the sales page on my website.

Doh!

So, don’t assume everything works. Make sure:

the links in your message take people where you want them to go
your message isn’t peppered with words that will send your email right into spam oblivion
you use the right dates and times,
and check for typos.

Every one of those annoying little things can ruin an otherwise well done promotion and make it look like no one is interested.

=== Bottom Line ===

Numbers in marketing are every bit as important as your sincere intentions to serve. In particular:

Remember you will lose about 9 out of every 10 prospects for each step they must take in the process to becoming customers.
The more you depend on online marketing the more important it is to have a large list of subscribers.
There are specific actions you can take to improve the odds so that you lose fewer people along the way such as
- repeating your offers
- making sure your offers are relevant to prospects, and
- testing for technical problems.

– Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, “Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!” go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

Email Marketing – Three Keys Before You Hit Send

Mike Valentine — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:05:16 +0000

Unfortunately, the first word that pops to mind when many people mention email marketing is ‘spam.’ The junk mail of the modern era, spam is frequently held up as an abominable combination of inconvenience and social evil, with spam blockers and anti-spam petitions filling the news online and offline. Of course, this means legitimate email marketing campaigns can get lost as weary consumers indiscriminately flag all marketing material as spam just to keep their inboxes clutter free.

How then can a company that has a legitimate, creative idea for an email advertisement series avoid getting caught in the spam trap? There are three key steps good copywriters and marketers can take to set themselves apart and boost their message open rates.

A Cautionary Tale

Important campaigns usually succeed or fail well before they’re ever launched – in the planning stages. Consider a recent and already infamous Intel advertisement. The advertisement had athletic sprinters lined up to race, a reasonable attempt to link the company’s processors to speedy performance. It failed because these athletes all were African American gentlemen who appeared to be bowing to a tall, smug looking Caucasian businessman. This was a clear breakdown in the planning process. No one asked the fairly obvious question ‘What could be wrong with this image?’ Intel pulled the advertisement and publicly admitted the mistake, but the image remains as a vivid reminder that cutting corners in the planning phase can bruise your brand.

Lay the Groundwork

The lesson here is that simple research, like enlisting a test audience, can mean the difference between hit and miss. The same holds true for email advertising campaigns – research is vital. Just because you can send out 100,000 generic emails within a few minutes of setting up a campaign idea does not in any way mean you should. Strategic planning up front not only can save you time in the long run, it also can secure your results.

Know the Audience

Previous articles have referred to the phenomenon of audience-influenced brands. This is particularly true now that the Web has become so extensively accessible. People’s opinions can catch public attention almost instantly, and word of mouth can spread across the entire world in a heartbeat. Whether or not you want the audience to control your brand is irrelevant; it can and will happen of its own accord, and you should be prepared for it.

Have you taken the time to really get to know your audience? There are thousands of Internet communities dedicated to every conceivable topic, hobby, interest, or fad and your product very likely falls into one of these. Visit these user forums, find out what people are saying, what needs are not being met, and what the general opinion is. Also, don’t just mine for information, but participate in the discussion. Engage and learn how people think and what they want to know about things. This isn’t a chore; this is an opportunity that businesses have rarely had in the past, a goldmine of information for any marketer to tap.

Kick up the Content

In many cases, businesses fail to treat email as a legitimate medium, although they’re eager to take advantage of it. Disregarding outright spam, even some well-intentioned ‘campaigns’ amount to little more than a poorly organized message presented in a jumble of mismatched colors rather than a serious attempt at focused communication.

The content of the email has to be strong. The first line has to provide a good hook, the body has to get the core, essential details out quickly and effectively, and the end has to have a call to action (be it a purchase or a website visit). Take the time to craft a message that shows you respect the reader’s intelligence, and put as much thought into the structure of the email as you would any other example of your best writing.

Once these three key elements are in place, consider a test circulation of your campaign before officially kicking it off. There is very little substitute for getting another pair of eyes to look over your hard work. They can spot unfortunate mistakes, call attention to strong points, and help you refine the process before the message is irrevocably out on the Web.

———- Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/

How To Build A Mailing List-Tips And Ideas

Mike Valentine — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:23:45 +0000

When you have an online business, one of the most important things you can do is to build a mailing list. It is not as hard to do as some people think it is. You just need to know how to build a mailing list effectively.

To help you get started, there are some important steps that you need to take to build a mailing list. Here are the most crucial steps.

Freebie – If you are going to capture the email address and name of a person you must give them something that is useful and free. The first step is to find the free item that you will be giving away and ensure that it is something people will want. It can be a free business tool, software, report, or anything else to entice them to give you their information.
Lead capture page or squeeze page – The next step is to build a lead capture page or squeeze page. This is just a simple page where you offer the freebie, provide the reasons it is a good idea for them to sign up for your newsletter and then put a capture form from any auto-responder on the site.
Newsletter – You need to sign up for an autoresponder for free and start setting up a newsletter or ezine. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but again, provide free articles, resources, videos and many other things that people will want. This will encourage them to stay on your email list after they have received the freebie offered to get them there. Send out a newsletter once a week, every two weeks or even monthly to keep in contact with the people on your list.
Marketing – This is a vital step to take once you have done the other steps. If people don’t know about your squeeze page, they will never sign up. You have to market your page, just like you do your online business. This is the only way to get people to sign up and the more ways you use to market, the faster you will build your list

These are the most important steps to take for building your mailing list. Now that you know how to build a mailing list; all that is left is for you to get started. The faster you get started the faster you can build your list and use it as a powerful marketing tool.

About the Author: Suzanne Morrison is the owner of an home business opportunities website that teaches anyone how to build a email list. For the best home business ideas anyone can make money with visit it today! http://www.homebiz-direct.com/

Publish a Successful Ezine with these Top 10 Tips

Mike Valentine — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:01:05 +0000

One of the systems I help my clients to implement is a schedule for getting on track with their ezine (electronic newsletter) as it’s so important that you have a systematic stay-in-touch strategy in place and a regular ezine is the perfect medium for achieving this!

However, the downside, and where so many solopreneurs fail, is that they don’t get into a regular publishing schedule and they start to lose their connection with their subscribers.

Today I’d like to share with you my top 10 tips for publishing a successful ezine and building that all-important know, like, and trust factor.

Create an editorial calendar – this is so that you can plan out in advance what topics you’ll be covering in each issue, and therefore avoid ‘blank screen/page’ syndrome.
Create a template – it’s so much easier to put your ezine together when you’ve got a template to work from. Plan which sections you want to appear regularly in your ezine and drop the appropriate content in each time. Hint: there are just two sections that are likely to change each issue – your personal note and your article – that’s it!
Keep an ideas section – in your newsletter binder create an Ideas section so that when you come across a resource or topic that you’d like to share with your readers you have a place to store the information, making it much easier to come up with articles and content for your ezine – you simply flick through your Ideas section.
Use an article template – when you’re stuck for ideas on what to write about, use an article template. It’s so much easier to write an article when you’ve got the outline done for you and all you need to provide is the content.
Use a title template - similar to number four above, but this time you’re just using a title as a basis for your inspiration, i.e. Top 10 Tips to [fill in the blank].
Utilize a list management service – this is a biggie! No sending out your ezine via your regular email program; you need to have a proper list management service for a variety of reasons, but the main ones being you need to comply with SPAM laws, signup for your ezine needs to be automatic, and when your list size gets above 50 most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) won’t allow you to send bulk emails via your regular email program.
Check hyperlinks - before you hit the ‘send’ button, ensure that you’ve thoroughly read through your ezine and check that all your hyperlinks are working properly. There’s nothing worse than asking someone to click through to a specific page and then find that the link doesn’t work.
Don’t include too many calls to action – if you include too many calls to action (i.e. click here to do this, click here to do that etc.) you’ll simply confuse your subscriber as they won’t know what they’re meant to be clicking on. So what will they do … nothing! Only ask your subscriber to do one or two things in each issue.
Deliver on time – this is so important. You need to publish your ezine exactly when you say you will each time. Not only does this build your relationship with your subscriber but they will also come to see you as being reliable – you do what you say you’re going to do, when you say it.
Seek feedback – And finally, ask for feedback from your subscribers. This is a great way to create one-on-one connections and also get valuable feedback on whether your ezine is providing the information your subscribers want.

Follow these 10 tips and you’ll ensure your ezine success!

About the Author: Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches professional speakers, coaches, and authors how to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com

Opt-In Email Marketing List Promotions

Mike Valentine — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:14:02 +0000

One of the quickest ways to build your email marketing list is by creating an ethical bribe, or what I refer to as a client attraction device. This free giveaway serves to entice visitors to your site to sign up for your email list because they want to access your solution to their problem proffered in your email list opt-in box.

What are the two most important characteristics of an effective client attraction device? It must provide the solution to at least one of the problems of your target market and utilize the keywords that your target market might use when seeking this type of solution. Secondly, your offering must have a high enough perceived value that your visitors would be willing to pay for it.

I routinely opt into many lists just to get the client attraction device. More times than not, the giveaway is simply a long reiteration of a problem, with the solution being available for purchase on the web site. This is the WRONG way to introduce yourself to prospects. Don’t be afraid to share some solutions with your prospects — it’s part of developing the Like, Know and Trust factor with them. If you are truly an expert in your field, the info you share for free is only the tip of the iceberg of the variety of solutions you can provide to your prospects.

What is the easiest way to create your own client attraction device? Here are 10 ideas that you can use to package your information into a valuable ethical bribe for your web site:

Audio of a presentation. Hold a teleclass on a particular topic and record it, or simply record a presentation with audio recording software on your computer. An audience isn’t necessary for a good recording — it is quality content that is the key.
Interview of an expert. Request to interview a noted expert in your target market. Ask the expert questions, or pull questions from a pre-assigned list you’ve been given. Record the interview and have it transcribed to create a two-part giveaway.
Special report or ebook. A special report is simply a short PDF report that runs between 2-5 pages. You can create this pretty easily by writing an article that’s 1500-2000 words. Typically an ebook is longer than a special report, combining several articles, or topics, to make a more complete overview of a topic. Format it to be easily read and add a bio page and and upsell page and your report is complete.
Checklist. A checklist is a 1-2 page PDF file that walks someone through a to-do checklist to complete a task. To create a checklist, simple outline the steps required to complete a particular task and insert a checkmark box in front of each so that the user can print out the list and mark off the steps as they are completed.
Video. Using video to promote your business is one of the hottest Internet marketing strategies today. You can create an info video that is a training or tutorial video made by using video screen capture software, or record yourself answering questions or presenting a topic with an inexpensive video camera. Upload it to your site or to one of the video hosting sites, and you’ve got a new client attraction device to give away.
Software. For as little as $50, you can hire a programmer to create a simple piece of software to help your prospects automate a task or solve a problem. Another option is to buy a license for some inexpensive software that you can then distribute as you wish.
Rolodex (Resources) list. Once you have developed a relationship with your prospects, invariably you will get asked to make recommendations for vendors to perform certain tasks. Because this list is valuable in that you have already gone through a number of services to find just the right provider and are thus saving your prospects hundreds of dollars and hours of time, create a list of these providers in a PDF document.
Templates. Templates are another time-saving device that prevents your prospects from having to reinvent the wheel. Package together templates you regular use, like templates for telephone followup calls, emails, email newsletters, to-do list, budgets, etc. Anything that will let your prospect use as a model for developing her own version will be greatly appreciated.
Worksheet/workbook. Sometimes information is better delivered in a format where the prospect can jot down ideas, answer questions, or brainstorm. A PDF worksheet or workbook is the ideal format for that to happen. Create a document with a series of questions and space to answer the questions, along with a bit of introductory text to set up the question, and you’ve created a useful workbook.
Ecourse. An ecourse is a series of emails that deliver information over a specific course of time via email. Your ecourse can last as short as 3 days or as long as 52 weeks. Once you pick a topic, simply determine the number of points that you want to make as you discuss the topic, and then create an email that thoroughly explains each point. Put the emails together in a sequence in your email marketing program and you have an ecourse.

If you simply request visitors to opt into your ezine list or your blog list, you’re not maximizing the work that your web site can do for you. Add a client attraction device to your opt-n box and watch your list grow!

About the Author: Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com